Embodiments of the inventive concepts relate to a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device and, more particularly, to an optical proximity correction method and a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device using the same.
Semiconductor devices are widely used in an electronic industry because of their small sizes, multi-functional characteristics, and/or low manufacture costs. Semiconductor devices may be categorized as any one of semiconductor memory devices storing logical data, semiconductor logic devices processing logic data, and hybrid semiconductor devices having both the function of the semiconductor memory devices and the function of the semiconductor logic devices. Demands for semiconductor devices with excellent characteristics have been increasing with the development of the electronic industry. For example, demands for high-reliable, high-speed, and/or multi-functional semiconductor devices have been increasing rapidly. To address these demands, semiconductor devices have been becoming highly integrated and structures of semiconductor devices have been becoming more and more complicated.
Semiconductor devices may be manufactured using a photolithography process. A layout of patterns may be printed on a semiconductor substrate by the photolithography process. However, as semiconductor devices have been becoming highly integrated, a distance between image patterns of a mask have been reduced gradually. For example, the image patterns may be very close to each other because of reduced distance between them. Due to this proximity, interference and diffraction of light may occur to print a distorted layout, different from a desired layout, on a semiconductor substrate. Resolution enhancement technology (e.g., optical proximity correction) may be used to prevent the distortion of a layout.